‘Guess Who? Religious Edition’ criticised for leaving out Muhammad

Hasbro, makers of the famous ‘Guess Who?’ game, has had to increase security at all its offices and factories worldwide following threats of protests and violence. The complaints have come following its release of a special ‘Religious Icon’ edition where they have not included the prophet Muhammad.

‘We have all of the main Gods, sons of Gods, and other religious characters,’ said a spokesman for Hasbro, ‘but we just couldn’t find an up-to-date picture of Muhammad. He’s obvious very protective of his privacy. But after seeing the problems previous attempts to caricature him have caused, we thought it best to leave him off. Now we’re criticised for not recognising Islam. It’s Catch-22.’

The omission of Muhammad has led to accusations that Hasbro is being anti-Islamic, with protesters claiming that their religion is again being discriminated against and portrayed as having no sense of fun.

‘Of course us Muslims know how to have a good time – we love Guess Who as much as the next person,’ said one protester. ‘But although you cannot show a picture of the prophet, they could have found a way around it. Leave the tile blank, just put his name on it or cover him in a burkha. There must be some way to do it, otherwise how could Muhammad have had a passport?’

The exclusion of Muhammad is not the only criticism made about the new ‘Religious Icon’ edition of the game. ‘Us professional players have had to completely change our questioning techniques,’ said ‘Guess Who?’ world champion, Mark Headley. ‘Asking ‘does he have a beard?’ is now pointless, and if you have a Hindu god, you can lose with just one question, ‘does he have six arms?’’

Although the protests against Hasbro’s decision started peacefully, one quickly turned violent and the company’s head office was taken over. ‘We had been anticipating trouble so set up four rows of guards outside the building,’ said Hasbro’s head of security. ‘However, the protesters simply flipped them over when it turned out none of them had glasses or a beard.’